Some Phillies Links For You, August 27, 2010: LOL Sweep, Halladay Ceremony, Clutch is Real?
by WholeCamels on Aug 27, 2010 7:54 AM EDT
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PrintBaseball Prospectus | Ahead in the Count: The Clutch and The Shifted
Old Friend Matt Swartz on left-handed hitters and late-inning clutch results, expanded on from work originally done here on The Good Phight.
Phils honor Doc's perfecto with family tribute
Awkward memorabilia exchange, with bonus appearance from the vile Sen. Bunning. Plus, I'm about 90% sure that Halladay and Carlos Ruiz are now married.
An Astro-nomical sweep puts Phils in funk
Boy howdy, it does.
Foul ball strike earns fan lifetime ban
The ball thrown from the upper deck along the third base line struck Reading (Pa.) Phillies pitcher J.C. Ramirez in the left leg Tuesday night. The double-A game was stopped briefly and the fan was removed. Ramirez remained in the game but gave up RBI singles to the next two hitters before leaving.
Well I guess that'll get him used to playing in Philadelphia zOMG ROFFLES BATTERIES AND SNOWBALLS AT SANTA TOOTH FAIRY!!! Taser.
Phillies Notes: Poor hitting affects pitching
We should only hope that the pitching is as badly "affected" as it was during that Astros series. Kendrick was rough, but not absolutely dreadful, and the other three did fine.
R-Phils' Cisco Hurls One-Hit Shutout
Galen must be very proud.
Did Paterson break the law? - Times Union
Well, I know someone ELSE who got into a little trouble with the law over some World Series tickets...
Phillies confident despite recent struggles
Such a weird season of peaks and valleys.
Astros’ debacle leaves Phillies on brink of danger
There are so, so many wrong things about this article, starting with the dreadful headline. You can't be on the "brink of danger" - you're in danger, or you're not.
The Fightins - Scenes from Kyle Kendrick’s surprise 26th birthday party
Nothing about this event doesn't give me douchechills. Particularly what appears to be the Photoshopped "Bull Durham" poster with Kyle and Survivor. Guuhhhhh...
Break Out the Brooms | FanGraphs Baseball
FanGraphs tells the Phillies not to bother with any more baseball.
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yeah, my mancrush barometer got all craaazy after looking at Jill Hamels. Now that I’ve seen what Cole’s sister looks like, I’m in for quite the dreamscape tonight.
The comments on the Fightins were the lulz.
by Wet Luzinski on Aug 27, 2010 3:57 PM EDT up reply actions
Cliff Lee
is human after all! it looks like he got hit around again last night. I guess he must go thru a bit of the dreaded “dead arm” at this team of the year. He had a 3-4 game stretch last year where he got hit around.
I hope that is all this is. There was discussion on Baseball Today about Lee’s pitching. They mentioned that his command is not as sharp (still in the strike zone, but not the same type of sharp location) and that his tempo and rhythm seem off, and they thought he could be injured. I really want them to be wrong.
by dannijd on Aug 27, 2010 8:33 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions
Cliff Lee
Would have dodged that ball that was thrown from the stands . . . without even knowing it was being thrown.
Matt Swartz’s article is amazing. The underlying precept— if I understand it correctly—is that The Shift is statistically effective against left handed sluggers, so much so that when The Shift can’t be employed (with men on 1st and 2nd), the lefties numbers appear better hence giving the appearance of being “clutch.” I guess it’s impossible to know, but I wonder how the analysis is affected by a slugger who frequently attempts to hit the ball differently to avoid The Shift (such as hitting to the opposite field) which can result in a less productive swing.
I don’t think it would work for Howard. For Howard to get a hit against the shift, he’d have to drag bunt a ball towards third. He could probably learn how to do this with reasonable certainty, as he seems to be a pretty good athlete (I’m thinking he could pull it off about 60-70% of the time if he worked at it).
The problem is, then opposing defenses would just leave a guy at third instead of having him play where SS normally is.
Most of Howard’s hard outs against the shift are to short right field or back through the middle, and those are places that are difficult to drop a bunt to, thanks to the pitcher’s positioning.
Was TGP cited correctly (APA or MLA???)
by Sept.28.Oct.27.Dec.28.2008 on Aug 27, 2010 10:01 AM EDT up reply actions
Kendrick’s fiancee is weird looking.
Meanwhile, Kendrick himself is starting to look kind of like Woody Harrelson. Or am I thinking of another actor. Not sure.
For a site that’s supposed to be a gathering place for statistically literate fans, Fangraphs really has a tendency to say a lot of stupid s**t.
by taco pal on Aug 27, 2010 10:19 AM EDT reply actions 1 recs
It’s weird too, given how decent a lot of their other stuff is. I thought Dave Cameron’s discussion of ERA vs. FIP, xFIP, SIERA, etc. in terms of deciding a Cy Young was actually really compelling, and I thought it bridged the conversation between traditional and SABR stats really delicately. The Phillies article, on the other hand, is hamfisted and reactionary — I get that they have different writers, and I actually like some of the one-off humor articles that come out of that, but you’d expect a more unified philosophy of tone and composition.
While I find Fangraphs a place where too many nerd bullies graze and snark monkeys dangle from trees, there is plenty good analysis roaming around. I ‘d expect to to see the “Break Out the Brooms” analysis as part of an article about lesser teams sweeping better teams in general, but singling out one team on the same day as said team’s series finale speaks of motives unconcerned with adding anything relevant to the ongoing discussion of sabermetrics.
that is
plenty of good analysis…..
Free custom made bookcases for anyone who can get me a god damn edit button!
Simple method to edit post
1. Type out post
2. Read Post
3. Change Post as needed
4. Press Post Button
I want horse head book ends
by SportingFanaticism on Aug 27, 2010 7:06 PM EDT up reply actions
Agreed
Some of the analyses in that article was interesting, but the “it’s all done for the Phillies” argument was both off putting and garbage and made me wonder if they were trying to make a name for themselves by trying to get attention in all of the wrong ways.
If they wanted to make the article really situationally fitting and cool, they also would have mentioned the fact that the Rockies just swept the Braves, and the statistical likelihood of that sweep, along with the statistical likelihood of both happening at the same time.
by dannijd on Aug 27, 2010 8:55 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions
You forgot "Vomit"
in that line about Ramirez getting hit with a ball.
mat latos
Not that it matters in the grand scheme of things, but Mat Latos exceeded the rookie-of-the-year cutoff by a grand total of 1 inning last year. If not for that, he would have been the runaway favorite for the award this year, Buster Posey included (since Posey will end the year with only 300-some ABs).
This is completely off topic but I was taking a quick peek at the SBN Padres blog, and ran across this fanpost.
http://www.gaslampball.com/2010/8/20/1632661/pge-park-and-the-portland-beavers
I think this is just a beautiful ballpark. I love how it’s so seamlessly embedded into a regular city neighborhood. Lots of ballparks are in cities, but they’re still surrounded by parking lots or ballpark-related development. Here, you have regular buildings right next door. It’s awesome.
Portland’s a cool city. I have some friends out there. DBAP has a similar set up in Durham, but the building were constructed to be part of the stadium. Not quite the same charm as PGE Park from the looks of it.
I like Minor League games for the ambiance, it usually a really unique vibe to each minor league park.
Portland is a cool city – as long as rain doesn’t bother year (more rain than seattle)
by SportingFanaticism on Aug 27, 2010 1:32 PM EDT up reply actions
Glad to hear you like our fair city. Let me know if you’re ever coming up to visit. The pictures in that article were great. Unfortunately, this is the last year for the old Portland Beavers. They lost their lease and will be moved to a new city (probably in CA) for next season. Someday there will possibly be another AAA team in Portland in a different ballpark, but who knows when that will happen. Portland would probably support a major league team about as well as Miami or St. Pete does, but for minor league baseball the attendance is always going to be pretty low because there are so many other things to do in Portland during the summer.
by phillyinportland on Aug 30, 2010 3:10 AM EDT up reply actions
Very cool. And I like the “Keep Portland Weird” slogan. I’d love to visit there someday.
by Boundforbeach on Aug 27, 2010 1:40 PM EDT up reply actions
great travel account. Was sort of jealous fantasizing about heading off to a far-off city to see a game. Assuming there’s another team there, I’ll put Portland on the list of “one days….”
by Wet Luzinski on Aug 27, 2010 4:17 PM EDT up reply actions
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